高僧傳 4.4

4.4

昔漢靈之時，竺佛朔譯出《道行經》，即《小品》之舊本也，文句簡略，意義未周。士行嘗於洛陽講《道行經》，覺文章隱質，諸未盡善，每歎曰：「此經大乘之要，而譯理不盡。」誓志捐身，遠求大本，遂以魏甘露五年，發迹雍州，西渡流沙。既至于闐，果得梵書正本凡九十章，遣弟子不如檀，此言法饒。送經梵本還歸洛陽。未發之頃，于闐諸小乘學眾，遂以白王云：「漢地沙門欲以婆羅門書，惑亂正典。王為地主，若不禁之，將斷大法聾盲漢地，王之咎也。」王即不聽齎經。士行深懷痛心，乃求燒經為證，王即許焉。於是積薪殿前，以火焚之。士行臨火誓曰：「若大法應流漢地，經當不然，如其無護，命也如何！」言已，投經火中，火即為滅，不損一字，皮牒如本，大眾駭服，咸稱其神感。遂得送至陳留倉恒水南寺。

Formerly, during the time of Emperor Ling of the Han, Zhu Foshuo translated the Daoxing jing, which was the older version of the Aṣṭasāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra; its sentences were brief and its meaning incomplete. Shixing once lectured on the Daoxing jing in Luoyang; feeling that the writing was obscure and plain and not entirely satisfactory, he would often sigh and say: 'This sūtra is the pivot of the Mahāyāna, yet its translated principles are incomplete.' Pledging his resolve to forfeit his own body, he sought the great original from afar. Thereupon, in the fifth year of the Ganlu era of the Wei, he set out from Yongzhou and crossed the flowing sands to the west. Having arrived in Khotan, he indeed obtained ninety chapters of the true Sanskrit text. He dispatched his disciple Punyadhana—which here means Farao ('abundance of Dharma')—to escort the Sanskrit original of the sūtra back to Luoyang. Just before he set out, the assembly of Hīnayāna scholars in Khotan spoke to the king, saying: 'The śramaṇa of the Han land wishes to use a brāhmaṇa text to bewilder and confuse the correct scriptures. Your Majesty is lord of the soil; if you do not forbid it, it will sever the great Dharma and blind and deafen the Han land, which will be Your Majesty's fault.' The king immediately forbade the carrying of the sūtra. Deeply grieved at heart, Shixing asked to burn the sūtra as proof, and the king consented. Thereupon firewood was piled before the palace, and it was set ablaze. Shixing stepped toward the fire and vowed: 'If the great Dharma is destined to flow into the Han land, the sūtra should not burn; if it has no protection, what can be done about fate!' Having spoken, he cast the sūtra into the fire; the fire was immediately extinguished, not a single character was harmed, and the birch-bark slips remained as before. The great assembly was awestruck and yielded, all praising its miraculous resonance. Thus he was able to have it sent to Canghengshuinan Temple in Chenliu.